Hannover Fair highlights sustainability and efficiency

Hannover Fair 2012 will take place from April 23 to 27 in Hannover, Germany, and will focus on resource-saving industrial technologies. Thousands of innovations will be unveiled at this year's event spanning all aspects of industry, including industrial automation and IT, energy and environmental technologies, industrial supply, production technologies and services, and research and development. The eight flagship fairs taking place under the Hannover umbrella include Industrial Automation, Energy, MobiliTec, Digital Factory, Industrial Supply, CoilTechnica, IndustrialGreenTec, and Research & Technology. This year's motto is “greentelligence.”

As an example of sustainability efforts, consider that electric motors offer enormous potential for boosting energy efficiency. According to estimates by the Association of German Engineers (VDI), 300 million electric motors are now in use around the world — a number that the Association says is rising by 10% each year. The VDI also believes that energy consumption in industrial operations can be reduced by as much as 30% through the use of intelligent energy automation systems, modern energy transmission technologies, and state-of-the-art electrical engineering components. According to the VDI, the demand-side savings will come from variable speed drives. Market analysts believe that the use of these types of intelligent motor control systems can potentially save 1.7 billion kWh of electricity worldwide, the equivalent of the annual output of 290 nuclear reactors. Many of these energy-saving components will be on display at Hannover.

Greentelligence will also be a focus theme at Industrial Automation, a fair for factory, process, and building automation systems and solutions, and at the Energy show, where energy companies present concepts for a reliable and competitive energy supply. Many of these ideas relate to intelligent electricity networks, or smart grids. For more information, visit hannovermesse.de.